Audio Version Of The Blog – 06.06.13

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How To Combat Drugs

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from European Parliament News): “One in four adults in Europe – more than 85 million people – have tried illicit drugs at some point in their lives. But is the situation getting better or worse? A new report by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction gives all the facts, such as that 73 new psychoactive substances were sold for the first time in the EU in 2012. …

“The good news is that there are fewer new users of heroin and less injecting, while the use of cannabis and cocaine is going down in some countries. However, there are concerns over synthetic stimulants and new psychoactive substances being offered, both legally and illegally.

My Comment: The world is forced to give up smoking—to turn to drugs. This kills in an inexpensive and silent way….
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Der Spiegel About Kabbalah

Der Spiegel About KabbalahThe German magazine Der Spiegel published an article on Kabbalah, based on the interview that I gave to the magazine’s correspondent.

 

 

Der Spiegel About Kabbalah_2

  Der Spiegel About Kabbalah_3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A Key To Understanding The Zohar

Dr. Michael LaitmanIf we want to understand The Book of Zohar, we have to imagine the relationships between us: how the intensity of the connection increases and decreases according to our actions and efforts. The network that ties us together is described in detail in TES (Talmud Eser Sefirot): Keter, Hochma, Bina, Zeir Anpin and Malchut or the Partzufim of Atik, and Arich Anpin which is Keter, Abba and Ima, which is Hochma and Bina and ZON, which is Zeir Anpin and Malchut.

We are connected by this network, included in it. The clearer this network becomes, the higher we rise. The less clear it becomes, the lower we descend. This is how we operate.

So, all our work is to evoke the strongest connection possible with the ten Sefirot in which we exist. Then, each one will see himself as Malchut that operates all these ten Sefirot, until they all take on their final form, the form of the world of Ein Sof (Infinity).

So, TES and especially The Book of Zohar were written in order to evoke us to see that we are in Malchut of the upper system from which we want to evoke the whole system.

We are part of a network, and we must spur this network. Then, each one will be impressed and feel the other and thus, also will be able to examine and understand how to operate this whole system.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/02/13,, “The Book of Zohar, Introduction”

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The King Of Israel, A Role Model For The People

Dr. Michael LaitmanEvery letter that is described in the article “The Letters of Rabbi Hamnuna Saba indicates a certain word or action. The letter Mem stands for the word “king,” so why wasn’t the world created by this letter? It’s as if there is a difference between the correcting force and the state to which it brings the object it corrects.

Mem is the correcting force, Malchut (the kingdom) of the forces, the King stands for domination, and the world cannot exist without a king, which means without a correcting force that persistently advances the desire to receive to correction, to the desired state.

On the one hand, a king is a very high illumination in which the Light of Hochma and the Light of Hassadim that come from the head of Arich Anpin connect. But on the other hand, this illumination cannot dominate the world since it fills up the created beings. The created beings need freedom! Although there is a king and there is Malchut, their domination should be accepted gladly and willingly below, so that the people will want to resemble the king by their own freewill.

A king should not be a dictator and a tyrant, but a role model and a symbol that one should reach. This king rules, but his ruling is good and it attracts the people. Thus the king of Israel differs from the king of the nations of the world. The king of Israel is not an example of domination. He rules by his Holiness, by being great and sublime, corrected and whole and not by force.

He is very powerful but it’s a totally different power, different than other kings.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/27/13, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar” 

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On Guard For The Benefit Of Others

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “The Love of the Creator and the Love for the Created Beings”: If we can somehow reconcile the above text, here comes Hillel’s statement to the foreigner who came before him and asked to be converted, as it says in the Gemarah, “Convert me so that you will teach me the entire Torah while I am standing on one leg.” He told him “That which you hate, do not do to your friend.” This is the entire Torah, and the rest means just go and study. We see that he told him that the entire Torah is the interpretation of the verse, “Love thy friend as thyself.”

We can correct all the corrupt desire to receive just by the right attitude toward the environment. I have all the necessary means that allow me to understand exactly what I am doing, to control and to adjust my attitude toward the friends, to get the right signs from them to check myself, and through them to get all the positive and negative forces that I need. In short, a person can correct all of reality by implementing the principle of “that which you hate, do not do to the other” on everything that the Creator has created. We don’t need anything but that.

Hillel’s condition is divided into two parts. One part is “negative,” which means that it requires self-discipline so as not to cause others harm or do evil to them. The other part requires the opposite: to guard the good of others. If another has a chance to attain something good and I prevent him from attaining it in some way, it means that I do unto him what I find hateful.

Thus, Hillel’s principle doesn’t only spread by actions that I initiate when I am full of love, trying to do my best to do something for the benefit of others.

The moment I begin to fulfill the condition of “that which you hate, do not do to your friend,” I immediately enter the business of the spiritual world, and it all becomes clearer to me. I begin to discover the connection between the different parts of reality, the general network, and in it, I discover the mutual relationship we study about in Talmut Eser Sefirot (The Study of the Ten Sefirot). I learn to restrict myself and how to connect with others so that I can influence every state as much as I can.

I discover my connections with others, restrict myself in order to establish the right relationships with others, choose attributes I can use, and establish a balance of forces, thus reaching the union of Israel, the Torah, and the Creator.

This is how Hillel actually demands that I do the spiritual work. It isn’t about giving charity or some gift to others, but about inner calculations regarding their true benefit.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/02/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Belonging To One Spiritual Organ

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”: Our sages said, “Make for yourself a rav and buy yourself a friend.” This means that one can make a new environment for oneself. This environment will help him obtain the greatness of his rav through love of friends who appreciate the rav. Through the friends’ discussing the greatness of the rav, each of them receives the sensation of his greatness. Thus, bestowal upon one’s rav will become reception and sufficient motivation to an extent that will bring one to engage in Torah and Mitzvot Lishma.

They said that, “The Torah is acquired by forty-eight virtues, by serving friends and by meticulousness of sages.” This is so because besides serving the rav, one needs the meticulousness of friends, as well as the friends’ influence, meaning that they will affect him by elevating the greatness of his rav. This is so because obtaining the greatness depends entirely on the environment, and a single person cannot do a thing about it whatsoever.

Without the pressure of the group, without feeling that the environment highly values the spiritual mentor, a person cannot esteem him. Egoism does not allow him to do so. It’s clear that here we need the help of society; only it can oblige us to have the correct attitude towards the teacher, through which we will get help from Above.

A teacher is a higher degree, and the group must instill the importance of this higher degree in a person. The difference between the material and spiritual world is that it is enough for the student to follow the teacher’s instructions, performing some material work together with him, and this will already connect him to the teacher even though he has not attained the same spiritual properties. Simple help is sufficient to make a connection with the higher degree and to begin to receive the Light that Reforms.

However, all of this is possible only under the condition that the person venerates the teacher. And this is at odds with human nature, and that is why this can be achieved only due to the influence of the environment. The more the environment venerates the teacher, the easier it is for the person to bow his head before him and thus get help from above according to the order of spiritual degrees.

The ten Sefirot of the person’s spiritual vessel are his friends, and the upper source from which they get the Light, is the Teacher. Thus, the person ascends the rungs of the ladder.

Being in this imaginary world gives us a unique opportunity, through the use of our egoistic desire, to come into contact with the upper spiritual degree and also to build our spiritual union by means of the material connection with friends. Otherwise, there would be no chance to connect to the desire of bestowal from the depth of our egoism.

It’s this material, imaginary form that allows us to use our egoistic desire to rise to spiritual degrees with the help of physical actions. So it happens up to the very top of the spiritual ladder: the same attitude towards the group and the teacher remains. The higher a person ascends, the higher or lower he feels himself, depending on his state. He appreciates the group more and loves the friends or vice versa, hates them more. Also, the teacher seems to him more insignificant, or more exalted.

This connection is never lost. It’s not important in what worlds the friends and teacher exist, in this world or if part of them have already entered the other world, that is, have lost their material form. In general, their connection with each other is forever preserved in the structure of the soul as if they belong to the same spiritual organ.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/5/13

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Everything Is Resolved Within An Hour

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Do we need to explain to people that they achieve similarity to nature in their unity?

Answer: Yes, we must explain this. Serious people come to us who want to master the integral methodology. They are specialists in their fields: politicians, scientists, doctors, computer programmers, and so forth. They want to know what is going on, why and how we have managed to do this.

We explain to them that integral science is very simple. It is built on conformity with nature. We must be on the same level with it—its energy, information, thought, desire—everything that there is in the natural environment, which, in principle, has created us.

However, how can we rise to its level? It is through our interconnection. That is why we create such a connection between us in which everyone is equal, is in mutual concern, in mutual integration with each other. That is, we create a small, integral, analog system in which there is no big or small. No one puts pressure on the other and everyone works toward common consent.

It is because by nature we are opposite to this common state since everyone is a great individualist, egoist, an opponent of others. However, now, rising above this, we begin to unite. We seem to create a capacitor, a storage device, a sensor, that consists of two parts: our previous state and the one that we have achieved now within the first work hour.

In this internal state, which is accumulated, integrated, between us, we begin to feel our similarity to nature. We call this likeness “inner Light” and seem to venerate it because Light gives us a sense of life.
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From KabTV’s “Through Times” 3/20/13

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Call The Light

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: I cannot manage to locate the starting point that doesn’t serve my ego that will enable me to rise above it. Everything that is in me, even this question, is a result of my pride, so what can I do?

Answer: Cry.

Question: But I can’t cry.

Answer: So, you should cry out. Of course, you have no powers and you even feel that you are a bit corrupt, so, you are not really alarmed by it since it doesn’t look so bad. It means that you still are lacking many discernments by which you can be drawn to the goal, by which you are repulsed by the current state and exit it.

So, cry and cry out and ask to do everything that is in your power. If you cannot even do that, then you still have the environment to which you can turn to. Turn to the friends.

If you have no power to do even that, then at least be somewhat incorporated in them. A person must take certain actions and he is given a chance to do so.

Question: The envy I feel toward the friends really works but it doesn’t bring me to the desired point yet. Therefore, no matter how hard I cry out, my cries will only be egoistic.

Answer: It doesn’t matter; they still help. The Surrounding Light responds to egoistic cries. Therefore, it is the Surrounding Light and not the Direct Light and not the Inner Light, and so you operate it even by egoistic cries. So, cry out. Call out and it will awaken in response to that.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/02/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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The Future Of The Corporations

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Today, we see the trend in industry where the large enterprises become increasingly larger and the small businesses are almost disappearing.

Answer: Small businesses gradually will disappear altogether as will medium-sized businesses. In their place will appear immense world factories that will be occupied with the manufacture and distribution of all that humanity requires, and humans will not require much. We know that 90% of the products are created only to create monetary accumulation in some particular bank accounts and not for anything else.

Therefore, humanity, according to an evolutionary order even without understanding how it is taking place, will reach this very quickly. A few tens or hundreds of very large corporations essentially will create all that is required for humanity and they will distribute the merchandise among them all. If, in the past, individual kiosks and small stores flourished, so, today, they all are included within large chains. Two or three large chains are swallowing all the rest.

However, in the meantime, this is happening to accumulate capital and conquer the world, whereas in the future, the goal will change.
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From KabTV’s “Through Time” 3/17/13

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